OctPoWriMo 2018: Day 13: National Disgrace

Copyright Geralt

Being kind is

What everyone should do

Do you?

You do not

Not do right

Right is might

Might you consider

Consider the absolute

Absolute power

Power corrupts

Corrupts when misused

Misused to abuse

Abuse those you see

See as less

Less than nothing

Nothing is what

What you discover

Discover within 

Within your rotten

Rotten, shriveled heart

Heart hard as stone

Stone over graves

Graves of those

Those who died

Died in vain

Vain sacrifice

Sacrifice for what

What but ambition

Ambition of soulless

Soulless rich men

Men who don't care

Care for anything

Anything but money

Money to buy

Buy the best tomb

Tomb to commemorate

Commemorate their lives

Lives full of lies

Lies always bellowing 

Bellowing forth

Forth from your mouth

Mouth always open

Open like a sewer

Sewer spewing waste

Waste of words

Words of deception

Deception of the masses

Masses left wanting

Wanting

Masses

~Sly Has Spoken~

Note:

Written by Cie's civic-minded alter-ego, Sly Fawkes.

Dedicated to the crook in the White House

Image copyright juliahenze @123rf.com

When the High School Bully and the Fashion Club Chick are In Charge

Seriously, is Melania Trump sixteen and trying to defy her parents by refusing to wear those stuffy outfits that they put out for her? I kind of hope so, because it would really be embarrassing if a nearly fifty-year-old, high-profile representative of the United States Government were wearing a trashy coat that looks like she got it off the clearance rack at Hot Topic.

As for Lord Dampnut, never before has there been a President who had Twitter tantrums and launched into personal attacks every time someone said something potentially negative about him. He needs detention. For real, if this fake president ever ends up in jail where he belongs, I will celebrate big time.

The United States looks a little bit something like this to the rest of the world these days.

~Sly Has Spoken~

Copyright juliahenze @123rf.com

Image source

Happy Fourth of July anyway.

Stay strong, try to keep the faith.

New Blow For Reproductive Rights

"Trump to deny funds for clinics that refer for abortion."
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-to-deny-funds-to-clinics-that-refer-for-abortion/ar-AAxrYOo?OCID=ansmsnnews11&ffid=gz
Because we all know what President Pussy Grabber thinks women's lives are worth.
There are more reasons for abortion than unwanted pregnancy.
There are more types of unwanted pregnancy than "promiscuous hussy getting busy with every dude in town," which is what the anti-choice lot tries to convince everyone that abortion is all about across the board.
The anti-choice lot always depicts abortion as being the straight-up murder of a fully formed, adorable, healthy white baby.
Let's just say for a minute that the anti-choicers are right. There are no other reasons for abortion than Promiscuous Hussies wanting to get down but not wanting to pay the piper for their Promiscuous Hussying.
The simple answer would seem to be providing birth control to reduce the number of abortions.
Nope! Providing birth control is giving a de facto thumbs up to Promiscuous Hussying.
So, let's take away all reproductive rights, like the GOP wants to do.
Are the anti-choicers going to adopt all the unwanted babies?
Yeah--we saw how that worked out in Romania under the rule of Nicolae Ceaușescu.
Speaking of Nicolae Ceaușescu, here is a passage from Wikipedia to ruminate on.
"His secret police, the Securitate, was responsible for mass surveillance as well as severe repression and human rights abuses within the country, and he suppressed and controlled the media and press, implementing methods that were among the harshest, most restrictive and brutal in the world. Economic mismanagement due to failed oil ventures during the 1970s led to skyrocketing foreign debts for Romania; in 1982, he exported much of the country's agricultural and industrial production in an effort to repay them. The shortages that followed drastically lowered living standards, leading to heavy rationing of food, water, oil, heat, electricity, medicine, and other necessities. His cult of personality experienced unprecedented elevation, followed by extensive nepotism and the intense deterioration of foreign relations, even with the Soviet Union."
A despot is a despot is a despot.
The truth is, I honestly don't think that Lord Dampnut gives a rip about abortion one way or another. I think he is kissing the asses of those who elected him and is doing what his puppet masters command. He hasn't got two working brain cells to rub together. His masters let him have his Twitter. He makes an ass of himself, which distracts people from what the evil slimeballs behind the scenes are actually up to.
Now this:
Kristan Hawkins of Students for Life of America said, "Abortion is not health care or birth control and many women want natural health care choices, rather than hormone-induced changes."
I've read over this several times. I'm not sure what the hell it even means.
That abortion should not be used as a primary form of birth control is accurate. Whether done as a surgical procedure or via a medication which promotes miscarriage, it is hard on the body. Saying that it is not a form of health care is, however, inaccurate. Once again, the anti-choice lot depicts all abortions as being the same kind and for the same reason. Abortions performed after the first trimester tend to be done because of severe defects in the fetus. According to these people, removal of an ectopic pregnancy would be an abortion. To allow an ectopic pregnancy to continue would kill the mother. So, tell me how removing an ectopic pregnancy or ending an unviable pregnancy isn't health care.
"Many women want natural health care choices rather than hormone-induced changes."
WHAT THE FUCK DOES THIS EVEN MEAN????
I was never able to take birth control pills because the "hormone-induced changes" put me right out of my head. Is she speaking against birth control pills or abortion here? Yes, there is an abortion method which involves taking a pill that temporarily alters the body's hormonal balance, but there are other methods of abortion as well. A D&C does not involve "hormone-induced changes." Does this mean it is a natural health care choice? I'm really not sure what the hell this woman is talking about.
I am a post-menopausal woman who is making the choice to have my reproductive organs removed because of endometrial hyperplasia. I don't want to take hormones because of the risks inherent in doing so. However, I honestly don't think that having my reproductive organs removed is a "natural health care choice." It is simply the form of treatment that makes the most sense to me because I don't want to take hormones for the rest of my life, I don't want to have to have a D&C every year, and I don't think it's wise to keep an organ which is in a pre-cancerous state. So, I'm opting to have the organ removed, but I don't think that's a particularly natural choice.
I could scratch a hole in my head trying to figure this woman's inane statement out.
In any case, one does not need to be "pro-abortion" to realize that the stripping away of reproductive rights leads to disaster. I have always been opposed to abortion on a personal level, but on a political level I realize that unhindered reproductive rights are a necessity.
I also realize that abortion is a complicated issue and it is not for me to decide what is right for another person.
Even in my own case, what was right for me in the past wouldn't be right now.
If, by some heinous twist of fate I were to be sexually assaulted and somehow conceive a child, at this point in my life it would be disastrous for me to carry that pregnancy to term. I am over 50 and have multiple health problems. I do not have the financial means to care for a child at this point. I do not even have the financial means to care for the cats that I took in years ago when I did have the means to care for them. 

There are so many things wrong with curtailing reproductive rights to this degree.
This isn't about the well-being of the adorable, healthy, full-term, white babies that the anti-choice faction think are being murdered by abortion-having hussies.
It is about controlling women.
It is odious.
I would expect nothing less from the party that would just as soon take away a woman's right to work and would like to see the world return to a time when a woman was either her father's or her husband's property.

~Sly Has Spoken~

Image copyright juliahenze @123rf

30 Days of Haiga: Day 14: Lament for My Flag

Original background image:

Copyright: milena1234 / 123RF Stock Photo

Fighter planes image (upper left corner) source NPR News

Racist graffiti image source: Olean Times Herald

Misogynist quote source: Donald Trump

Notes:

I like to think the piece speaks for itself, but I will include a little personal history. 

When I was a young child in my early school years, I was very proud when it came time to say the Pledge of Allegiance. I sprang to my large and far from dainty feet, puffed out my scrawny chest, put my hand over my stalwart young heart, and spoke those hallowed words in my biggest voice. 

I was born in 1965. I didn't go to Kindergarten. Many years later I had a nightmare that Ronald Reagan ordered me to go back to school starting with Kindergarten. Initially, I attempted to comply, but then I realized that there was no legally binding reason for me to do this and I said "I quit," and walked out of the classroom to the sound of Mr. Reagan's voice berating me as a loser.

From first through third grade, the Viet Nam war was still taking place. I believed that the United States would eventually see that the war was a bad idea and would end it, so I said the Pledge proudly because I believed that my fine country would eventually do the right thing because we were the Good Guys.

During the next several years, the country was healing from the aftereffects of the Viet Nam War. I believed that we were headed in the right direction, and I thought that Jimmy Carter was a fine president and would continue to take us that way.

The Reagan era began when I was fifteen years old and I came to believe that we were all doomed to either eat flaming death in a nuclear holocaust or freeze to death in the nuclear winter which would follow. The Pledge of Allegiance lost its former wondrous appeal to me, but I still said it because I felt it was my duty as a patriot to try and believe in my country.

As my son says, the United States is still one of the best countries to live in, but we have a lot of problems. The election of Donald Trump brought a plethora of pathology boiling to the surface. 

We are not post-racist or post-misogynist and we are severely intolerant of anyone who isn't a God-fearing American "Christian." I put Christian in quotes because I don't think the behavior of those who subscribe to the ideals of American religious fundamentalists is Christ-like in any way. There is a frightening new wave of nationalism, and free speech is under fire. There is normalization of bigotry and intolerance.

This is not the America that young me believed in when she put her hand over her heart to proudly say the Pledge of Allegiance every morning at school and even at home in her bedroom on Saturday and Sunday because she thought it was the right thing to do.

This America brings tears to the eyes of middle-aged, working class me as I write these words. I despair for the loss of innocence in the heart of the child I once was and fear for the future of who I have become, for those I love, and for my fellow citizens of this world.

~Sly Speaks~

As real as it gets

Copyright Julia Henze +123RF.com 

Women are Half of Humanity

This is a comment I made on an article by Arthur Magida.

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/might-5-ex-presidents-prevent-trump-making-us-unrecognizable-2020

A bit of nit-picking of an otherwise well-written piece. If the author were to state "these are times that try the human soul" rather than "these are times that try men's (and women's) souls," he would avoid putting women in parentheses as if we are an afterthought. I believe that the author does not think of women as an afterthought, given his biography."

Most of us learned the old, sexist literary rules of always referring to an unspecified person as "him" and using phrases such as "the spirit of man" to describe all people. 

Personally, I took hits to my grade because I refused to do that. These rules come from a time when women were seen as lesser and, in fact, thought not to have souls.

When making a direct quote, I don't change the wording as I am attributing the quote to the person who initially wrote it. However, when it comes to my own writing, I am human but I am not a man. I refer to the human spirit, to humanity (as opposed to mankind, unless I am speaking only of men.) 

It is past time to recognize that humanity encompasses more than "man". 

As I said, other than that, the author is spot on. 

Lord Dampnut and his cabinet of crooks present a terrible threat to everything the U.S. stands for, and to the safety of the entire world.

~Sly Has Spoken~

Copyright juliahenze +123RF.com 

Come On, Sly, Give the Rump A Chance--Please?

Tell me again how I'm supposed to be okay with having this in a key government position

The first election I voted in was Reagan vs. Mondale. I voted for Mondale.

I've had people tell me I'm being an "alarmist" and being "unfair" to The Rump, that I'm being "disrespectful" and need to "give him a chance."

I've been around for a lot of years and I have never felt this concerned before. Frustrated, yes. Worried, sure. After all, there was the Cold War and there was Reagan and his "Star Wars" plan. But I never compared Reagan to Hitler.

I never saw reason to compare either of the Bushes to Hitler either.

Surely one would think I might have reason for thinking as i do about The Rump, for disrespecting him so utterly, for feeling that comparisons to Hitler are apt. But nope, I'm just a silly little neophyte with and overactive imagination. These people can keep telling themselves that about the dissenters while The Rump and his lackeys destroy this country.

~Sly Has Spoken~

Copyright juliahenze@123rf.com

Sly Says: Become the Avalanche

Marty Walsh, Mayor of Boston

Here's the thing with the whole "you have to accept Trump as your president. You have to give the new administration a chance" bit.

I didn't vote for either of the Bushes. I accepted both of them as President. I wasn't afraid of either of them, although I was critical of certain of their decisions.

I accepted Ronald Reagan as president. I was very critical of his decisions. I was afraid that he might make a stupid decision that would end us up in a nuclear exchange. I still didn't despise him to the core.

I never thought that Reagan or either of the Bushes were inherently evil. I thought that there were ways in which they were misguided. I didn't think that joking about Reagan's Alzheimer's disease was funny.

I don't know if Trump is "evil" per se, but he is not a good person. He is a con man. However, I also don't think he's actually in charge. I think he's a puppet, and I think that those who are pulling his strings are very, very bad people.

You know how they say that one bad apple spoils the barrel. Well, there are a lot of bad apples in the barrel right now. If we don't get them out, they are going to destroy our country.

I do not accept Donald Trump as my President, and I do not accept this new administration.

If that makes me a "special snowflake," then I'm proud to be a special snowflake alongside people like Marty Walsh, the Mayor of Boston, who is resisting the bad decisions made by the new regime because they are harmful to the people of his city.

When enough special snowflakes resist, we can become an avalanche.

Let's be the avalanche.

~Sly~

Copyright: juliahenze / 123RF Stock Photo

Sly Says: Wake Up, People!

Image by Shepherd Fairey

For anyone still believing that everything is fine, that people like me are just being overly dramatic and/or unpatriotic, who still think that we need to give this new regime a chance, well, don't take my word for it. Just look at what has happened in the space of a week since tRump and his cabinet of deplorables took over.

Those who study authoritarian regimes suggest keeping a list of abnormal events after a demagogue is elected, as a way to remind yourself that this isn't normal and to keep from being overwhelmed into acceptance by the onslaught of attacks on our rights.

Here is a list below. We are 4 days in.

As the author says, "when you see all of this in one list, it is easy to get overwhelmed, at first-- it is also easy to see a pattern and to finally, finally recognize that none of this is normal, nor is it ok."

* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the DOJ’s Violence Against Women programs.

* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the National Endowment for the Arts.

* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities.

* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Minority Business Development Agency.

* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Economic Development Administration.

* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the International Trade Administration.

* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership.

* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.

* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Legal Services Corporation.

* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Civil Rights Division of the DOJ.

* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Environmental and Natural Resources Division of the DOJ.

* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.

* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Office of Electricity Deliverability and Energy Reliability.

* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Office of Fossil Energy.

* On January 20th, 2017, DT ordered all regulatory powers of all federal agencies frozen.

* On January 20th, 2017, DT ordered the National Parks Service to stop using social media after RTing factual, side by side photos of the crowds for the 2009 and 2017 inaugurations.

* On January 20th, 2017, roughly 230 protestors were arrested in DC and face unprecedented felony riot charges. Among them were legal observers, journalists, and medics.

* On January 20th, 2017, a member of the International Workers of the World was shot in the stomach at an anti-fascist protest in Seattle. He remains in critical condition.

* On January 21st, 2017, DT brought a group of 40 cheerleaders to a meeting with the CIA to cheer for him during a speech that consisted almost entirely of framing himself as the victim of dishonest press.

* On January 21st, 2017, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer held a press conference largely to attack the press for accurately reporting the size of attendance at the inaugural festivities, saying that the inauguration had the largest audience of any in history, “period.”

* On January 22nd, 2017, White House advisor Kellyann Conway defended Spicer’s lies as “alternative facts” on national television news.

* On January 22nd, 2017, DT appeared to blow a kiss to director James Comey during a meeting with the FBI, and then opened his arms in a gesture of strange, paternal affection, before hugging him with a pat on the back.

* On January 23rd, 2017, DT reinstated the global gag order, which defunds international organizations that even mention abortion as a medical option.

* On January 23rd, 2017, Spicer said that the US will not tolerate China’s expansion onto islands in the South China Sea, essentially threatening war with China.

* On January 23rd, 2017, DT repeated the lie that 3-5 million people voted “illegally” thus costing him the popular vote.

* On January 23rd, 2017, it was announced that the man who shot the anti-fascist protester in Seattle was released without charges, despite turning himself in.

* On January 24th, 2017, Spicer reiterated the lie that 3-5 million people voted “illegally” thus costing DT the popular vote.

* On January 24th, 2017, DT tweeted a picture from his personal Twitter account of a photo he says depicts the crowd at his inauguration and will hang in the White House press room. The photo is of the 2009 inauguration of 44th President Barack Obama, and is curiously dated January 21st, 2017, the day AFTER the inauguration and the day of the Women’s March, the largest inauguration related protest in history.

* On January 24th, 2017, the EPA was ordered to stop communicating with the public through social media or the press and to freeze all grants and contracts.

* On January 24th, 2017, the USDA was ordered to stop communicating with the public through social media or the press and to stop publishing any papers or research. All communication with the press would also have to be authorized and vetted by the White House.

* On January 24th, 2017, HR7, a bill that would prohibit federal funding not only to abortion service providers, but to any insurance coverage, including Medicaid, that provides abortion coverage, went to the floor of the House for a vote.

* On January 24th, 2017, Director of the Department of Health and Human Service nominee Tom Price characterized federal guidelines on transgender equality as “absurd.”

* On January 24th, 2017, DT ordered the resumption of construction on the Dakota Access Pipeline, while the North Dakota state congress considers a bill that would legalize hitting and killing protestors with cars if they are on roadways.

* On January 24th, 2017, it was discovered that police officers had used confiscated cell phones to search the emails and messages of the 230 demonstrators now facing felony riot charges for protesting on January 20th, including lawyers and journalists whose email accounts contain privileged information of clients and sources. 

~Compiled by Amy Siskind~

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Copyright: juliahenze / 123RF Stock Photo

Sly Says: So I'm an Alarmist, Eh?

And so it begins my friends...
In Case You Missed It
The Senate voted 51 to 48:
1. To end coverage for preexisting conditions, veterans benefits, and aid to rural hospitals.
2. To remove discrimination protection for women in healthcare.
3. Against the provision allowing children to remain on their parent's insurance till the age of 26.
4. To cut off funding for the Child Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
5. Against ACA contraceptive coverage and maternity care provision.
6. To direct committees to send budget legislation to de-fund and repeal the Affordable Care Act.
For those who get health insurance through work, no pre-existing conditions. Lifetime caps for coverage are back for everyone.
Real actions are being taken that will affect more than just the 20-30 million people who will lose their health care coverage and the 3 million people who will lose their jobs.
Despite their assertions of this being an action to "repeal and replace," no viable alternative plan has been proposed.
As of this moment, no replacement exists.

Send letters. Tell how you or someone you care about will be hurt by these changes.

The White House has turned off its public comments site and they all ignore email. Need postage? Let me know. I bought a bunch of stamps today, so I can help if postage stamps are not in your budget.

Apparently, Speaker Ryan has had his phones cut off because of the volume of calls, so here is his mailing address:
1233 Longworth HOB
Washington, D.C. 20515
Fax: (202) 225-3393

I'd also urge you to find out which way your state's senators voted and give them a piece of your mind (positive or negative), and then keep this in mind when elections come around again.

COPY AND PASTE THIS. EVERYWHERE!

~Sly~

Copyright Juliahenze@123rf.com

Sly Says: Melania Trump, the First Victim

Pity and do not ridicule Melania Trump. In her narcissistic husband's eyes, she's just another one of his possessions. I don't think she really wants to be part of this. Much as he's wretched and deserving of all criticism levied at him, I think she needs to be left out of the attacks. For those who say "why doesn't she just leave?" it really isn't that easy to "just leave." Once a person has been gaslighted for a long time, they come to doubt their own thoughts and feel that perhaps either things aren't "that bad" and they're just being "dramatic" or they fear that things could get worse if they leave.

We need to keep our criticisms confined to those who can actually do things that ruin our lives. That means the Rump. His adult children aren't immune from criticism, although I'm uncomfortable with attacks on Ivanka which insinuate that she's somehow a willing partner in his creepy behavior towards her. Laughing it off is not the same as willingness.

Barron should definitely not be attacked. As a minor, he really has no say. His actions at the inauguration were those of a child who was bored and uncomfortable with what was going on.

The Rump's elder sons seem to be real chips off the old block. I have no respect for anyone who pays for canned trophy hunts to prove their "manhood." And lest we forget, there was the infamous comparison of Syrian refugees to Skittles. Raise the rotten produce and launch, as far as those two are concerned.

There really doesn't seem to be that much to say about Tiffany. She doesn't have any influence.

The Rump is the one we need to focus on. Pictures of Melania from when she was a model are a non-issue. The woman went from one abusive man (her father) to another (The Rump.) She's suffering enough. Let's focus our criticisms on him, not her.

~Sly~

Copyright Juliahenze@123rf.com

Sly Fawkes Talks: The Danger Lies Behind the Curtain

Steve Bannon: Clueless Don's Dangerous Neo-Nazi Puppeteer

Source: Getty Images

Sly responds to this Daily Beast piece. regarding the fact that Trump's speech sounded extremely nationalistic.

Not to defend The Rump, but I'm not surprised that his words weren't his own. He really isn't that intelligent. I've said from the start that he's a figurehead. On his own, he would be an offensive, ludicrous boor like he's always been, but in the end, not too much trouble to remove. It's the ones behind the curtain who are the true danger. I am in no way being hyperbolic when I say this.

Personally, I don't think Trump is terribly aware, if at all aware, of how nationalistic the words coming out of his mouth sounded. He is not a politician, he's a carnival barker. Further, the only person Donald Trump cares about is Donald Trump. He will do whatever his advisers tell him, including neo-Nazi and domestic abuser Steve Bannon.

~Sly~

Copyright: juliahenze / 123RF Stock Photo

Sly is exercising her First Amendment rights

The Cheese Grates It: WTF Zoe Saldana?

The following thoughts are musings on some incomprehensible statements made by Zoe Saldana in this article on the Daily Beast.

Saldana says: 

“We got cocky and became arrogant and we also became bullies,” Saldana told AFP of Trump, who’s mocked a disabled New York Times reporter, called Megyn Kelly a “bimbo,” accused Ted Cruz’s father of assassinating JFK, and has himself been accused of sexual assault by over a dozen women.

“We were trying to single out a man for all these things he was doing wrong,” she continued, “and that created empathy in a big group of people in America that felt bad for him and that are believing in his promises.”

The Daily Beast responds:

There is this strange argument, one cooked up by the Trump campaign and propagated by the conservative media apparatus, that Hillary Clinton (and by extension her Hollywood surrogates) ran an “ugly” campaign against Trump. The reality, of course, is that virtually all of Clinton’s attack ads against Trump consisted of montages of Trump saying heinous things. Accusing someone of running an ugly campaign for merely highlighting the sexist, bigoted, hateful things her opponent’s said is textbook gaslighting.

The Cheese Grates It:

I'm sorry, but I'm not awfully worried about being perceived as a bully when it comes to a "man" who talks about grabbing women by the privates, who mocks disabled people, who wants to create a registry for all people of a given faith and from certain parts of the world, and so on. Not that I'm part of Hollywood (thank whatever powers there may be for that) but I don't feel the least bit bad about any "rude" things I may have said about Donald T. Rump. Oops, there I go again.

~The Cheese Hath Grated It~